Sri Lanka, a growing handset market with considerable brand awareness: Samsung

The mobile market in Sri Lanka has been growing considerably while consumers have developed a strong sense of significant brand awareness, says Youngmin Shin, MD of Samsung Sri Lanka.

“Yet the country needs to focus more on the importance of buying genuine products. Buying original products is not justa smart choice for the consumer but also provides assurance of its high quality and durability in the long run,” he adds.

As Sri Lanka experiences enhanced growth in purchase patterns for electronic goods, especially smartphones, the trend looks set to gaintraction; however, the importance of buying genuine products needs to be seen as a significant factor in making purchase decisions. 

Samsung Sri Lanka Managing Director Youngmin Shin

“The tendency to buy cheaper or unbranded products can not only impact the performance of a particular product but also dent customer faith in the segment,” he reiterates.

Samsung believes that theSri Lankan market has great potential for the future. As the mobile market matures, the demand for genuine and reliable products also increases. 

“It is not only about the price as a concern for purchase behaviour but people recognising and responding to high quality product attributes which also generates significant brand loyalty. Sri Lanka is no exception; the growth experienced needs to be more focused towards buying genuine products than relying on grey goods for daily needs,” he says.

In a market with unbranded, low-priced products that come with little focuson quality, the end user has a greater responsibility to ensure that such products do not enter his or her personal orbit. Choosing branded products is not just a lifestyle choice but also an intelligent one that guarantee long term safety and durability.

“As a community, greater efforts should be made to create better product awareness and acquaint the customers with the impact of buying cheaper or unbranded products. Typically, these products may not have passed stringent quality checks and there is a possibility of causing damage to consumers and the environment as well. When as a society, we make a collective decision to buy only the genuine products, there is less likelihood of low priced, unbranded products entering the market,” he points out.

Samsung believes that greater regulation and monitoring of counterfeit goods, as the market grows, will be helpful to enable consumers to make better, more genuine choices. 

The presence of unbranded goods in the market place can be detrimental to consumer interests in the long term and affect quality levels available.  It also raises concern over the vastloss in revenue to the state. Consumers may need to make a deliberate choice to buy original goods to promote safety as a key concern.In the long term, it may also encourage greater potential formanufacturing of handsets in Sri Lanka, adds Shin. 

“Samsung will reaffirm its commitment to the Sri Lankan market by enhancing our service delivery levels. We will increase our service network via a greater number of centers by 80% while taking measures to further speed up the service response to our consumers,” he says in conclusion.